Six Ivecos in the top ten of the truck rankings identify the direction that the 46th edition of the Dakar is taking, which concluded the fourth stage by putting things back in their place: the illusion that Ales Loprais could lead the game of heavy vehicles lasted a one day and immediately afterwards Janus Van Kasteren regained control of the race by winning the third appointment, including the prologue.
The Dutchman with the Powerstar of the Boss Machinery team De Rooy FPT wanted to set the record straight after suffering yesterday's attack from the Praga V4S DKR due to a puncture. Janus dictated the pace, imposing a pace that was impossible for everyone. If Loprais was able to limit the gap to just over five minutes, so he is more than ever fighting for this edition of the Dakar which seems very demanding straight away, the same cannot be said of Martin Macik, the Czech from MM Technology which maintained third place in the general classification, but saw the gap from the top grow significantly with the yellow Iveco Powerstar.
In the stage, Michiel Van der Brink once again stood out, second in the 299 km timed test, 13 minutes behind Van Kasteren, but overall the 21-year-old from Eurol Rallysport is already an hour and a half behind the De Rooy team truck , so things are getting more and more difficult. The performance of the two Tatras of the Buggyra team remains positive: Pascal De Baar is easily fourth ahead of teammate Jaroslav Valtr who can feel the young Van der Brink breathing down his neck.
Michiel Beck with the Iveco of his team managed by De Rooy defends himself in seventh place, while Gerd Huzink, brilliant protagonist in the first days with the hybrid Renault, slipped into the second part of the Top 10 with a gap that has already reached two hours .
Claudio Bellina is stable in ninth position with the Powerstar of MM Technology: the Italian crew can have a margin of almost an hour on Vic Versteijnen, another youngster from the Dutch school who wants to climb the important positions among the trucks.
Dakar 2024 – General classification Trucks
Stage 4: Al Al Salamiya – Al-Hofuf
Special: 299 km; Transfer: 332; Total: 631 km
| POS. | Pilot/Mechanic/Navigator | Truck | Time/detachment |
| 1. | Van Kasteren-Snijders-Rodewald | Tatra Jamal | in 17.45'17″ |
| 2. | Loprais-Valtr jr-Stross | Prague V4S DKR | at 5'17″ |
| 3. | Macik-Svanda-Tomasek | Tatra Buggyra | at 45'43″ |
| 4. | De Baar P.-Sikola-Vershoor | Renault C460 Hybrid | at 14'31″ |
| 5. | Valtr-Kilian-Kilian | Tatra Buggyra | at 1.17'08″ |
| 6. | Van den Brink M.-De Pol-Torrallardona | Iveco Powerstar | at 1.28'22″ |
| 7. | Becx-Kuijpers-Van Ginkel | Iveco Powerstar | at 1.47'17″ |
| 8. | Huzink-Buursen-Roesink | Iveco Powerstar | at 2'00'22″ |
| 9. | Bellina-Gotti-Arnoletti | Tatra Phoenix | at 3.05'01 |
| 10. | Versteijnen-Van der Sanede-Van Dal | Iveco Powerstar | at 3.54'28″ |
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